Stock Market News

US pre-open: Stock futures fall after recent run

US stock futures were pointing to a weak start on Wall Street on Monday as markets looked set to pull back after a strong end to last week.

S&P 500 futures were trading down 0.3% ahead of the opening bell, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq were both down 0.2%.

In spite of the closely-watched US non-farm payrolls report on Friday coming in well below forecasts for a second month in a row, markets were reasonably resilient as bargain hunters stepped in following the correction seen last month.

The benchmark S&P 500 even registered its best two-day rally since October helping it to rise 0.8% on the week - its first week in positive territory after three consecutive weekly losses.

However, with stocks in Europe struggling for direction in the absence of corporate earnings and any major economic news, traders have turned cautious this week ahead of a number of key risk events in the coming days, including a speech by new Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

Yellen, who took over from former Chair Ben Bernanke this month, is set to deliver her first report on monetary policy on Tuesday with investors eager to gauge her thoughts on the Fed's staged withdrawal of stimulus.

"Markets are expected to be quite jumpy as she testifies to the House Financial Services Committee as her words will influence investors' decisions and could potential cause a frenzy in global markets," said Sam Fox, Financial Sales Trader at Spreadex.

McDonald's rises in pre-market trade

Fast-food giant McDonald's edged higher ahead of the open after saying that global same-store sales rose by 1.2% in January despite weakness in the domestic US market.

Online reviews operator Yelp surged on reports that internet group Yahoo! is to incorporate its listings and reviews into its search engine.

Qualcomm, the wireless technology firm, dropped on competition concerns after Taiwanese mobile gadget maker HTC suggested that it could use other chipset providers.

Stock News is provided by Digital Look Corporate Solutions from Sharecast news.
Please read the terms and conditions of useage of this data. Republication or redistribution of content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Digital Look Ltd.

Get a free widget for your website with our latest headlines.

You can now add our live prices and new headlines to your website.The news widget features quotes for Oil prices, spot Gold price and Indices plus a choice of news channel for healines.